Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on premium platforms

One unnerving spiritual shockfest from scriptwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an forgotten horror when strangers become tokens in a fiendish maze. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of continuance and timeless dread that will reshape genre cinema this spooky time. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and immersive cinema piece follows five lost souls who are stirred locked in a isolated lodge under the malignant will of Kyra, a troubled woman haunted by a ancient biblical force. Steel yourself to be drawn in by a visual ride that fuses visceral dread with mythic lore, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a recurring foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is subverted when the entities no longer develop from an outside force, but rather inside their minds. This illustrates the haunting part of each of them. The result is a intense inner struggle where the tension becomes a relentless confrontation between right and wrong.


In a desolate backcountry, five souls find themselves trapped under the ghastly grip and possession of a shadowy entity. As the ensemble becomes helpless to escape her power, left alone and pursued by evils unfathomable, they are obligated to wrestle with their soulful dreads while the hours without pity pushes forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety amplifies and connections erode, requiring each survivor to reconsider their identity and the philosophy of self-determination itself. The pressure mount with every second, delivering a fear-soaked story that fuses occult fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to draw upon ancestral fear, an power from prehistory, channeling itself through our fears, and questioning a spirit that redefines identity when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra demanded embodying something outside normal anguish. She is ignorant until the possession kicks in, and that pivot is bone-chilling because it is so raw.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for streaming beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving households around the globe can witness this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first preview, which has received over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, spreading the horror to international horror buffs.


Experience this cinematic journey into fear. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to experience these unholy truths about the soul.


For teasers, making-of footage, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit the official digital haunt.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 season U.S. release slate melds myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, together with Franchise Rumbles

Spanning grit-forward survival fare suffused with old testament echoes as well as canon extensions plus pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become horror’s most layered and strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios hold down the year with familiar IP, simultaneously OTT services load up the fall with new voices in concert with primordial unease. Meanwhile, the artisan tier is carried on the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, notably this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are calculated, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige fear returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s pipeline lights the fuse with a big gambit: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a crisp modern milieu. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. timed for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Guided by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

After that, The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson again directs, and those signature textures resurface: 70s style chill, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. The bar is raised this go, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, broadens the animatronic terror cast, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is virtually assured for fall.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No swollen lore. No canon weight. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Franchise Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, from Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror resurges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The 2026 spook release year: Sequels, universe starters, plus A hectic Calendar calibrated for nightmares

Dek The upcoming horror season lines up right away with a January glut, then rolls through summer corridors, and pushing into the late-year period, weaving IP strength, novel approaches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are betting on responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that shape the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has turned into the most reliable release in studio lineups, a segment that can expand when it connects and still cushion the exposure when it does not. After 2023 reminded top brass that mid-range scare machines can shape the discourse, 2024 kept energy high with filmmaker-forward plays and unexpected risers. The tailwind translated to the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries proved there is appetite for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that travel well. The result for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across the field, with clear date clusters, a balance of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a refocused priority on theater exclusivity that increase tail monetization on premium home window and subscription services.

Buyers contend the genre now performs as a wildcard on the slate. Horror can premiere on many corridors, supply a clear pitch for trailers and UGC-friendly snippets, and exceed norms with audiences that arrive on opening previews and continue through the next weekend if the title satisfies. On the heels of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 configuration indicates confidence in that approach. The calendar gets underway with a weighty January stretch, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while carving room for a late-year stretch that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The program also illustrates the deeper integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the proper time.

An added macro current is series management across interlocking continuities and established properties. The companies are not just making another sequel. They are setting up threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a recalibrated tone or a casting move that anchors a new entry to a first wave. At the same time, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating physical effects work, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That convergence gives 2026 a strong blend of home base and unexpected turns, which is what works overseas.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount plants an early flag with two front-of-slate bets that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the heart, positioning the film as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a memory-charged strategy without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push anchored in brand visuals, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will foreground. As a summer alternative, this one will seek large awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, melancholic, and commercial: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that evolves into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s marketing likely to mirror strange in-person beats and bite-size content that interlaces affection and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a official title to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are framed as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway gives the studio room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has established that a gnarly, practical-first mix can feel high-value on a lean spend. Position this as a red-band summer horror shot that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate IMAX and PLF uptake and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by obsessive craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that enhances both debut momentum and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines acquired titles with worldwide buys and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on the horror cume. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival pickups, locking in horror entries toward the drop and turning into events debuts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a two-step of precision theatrical plays and rapid platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, marshalling the project through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has been successful for director-led genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate legacy awareness. The concern, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is familiar enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns contextualize the method. In 2023, a exclusive window model that held distribution windows did not hamper a day-date move from hitting when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot consecutively, creates space for marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to leave creative active without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The behind-the-scenes news chatter behind 2026 horror hint at a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature execution and sets, which fit with expo activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that work in PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited disclosures that favor idea over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s synthetic partner unfolds into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss fight to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic shifts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s material craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting narrative that leverages the dread of a child’s tricky interpretations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-fronted event with navigate here teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three practical forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, managed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.